Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Mooshu


The street which i live in is a relatively busy one. But some how it is the home to many stray cats and dogs. One such stray dog lives in my house, under my car. My cousin calls him, Mooshu. He is a this underfed (of course) furry brown and white dog. Hes got a black nose, sharp ears and eyes that make you want to hug him.

I have seen many a stray dog, but none like Mooshu. Why? because Mooshu is the only stray dog i know that wants the same thing, that rich lonely people also want. any guesses!?!

LOVE.

Every day when i step out to take my dog for a walk Mooshu will come running and jump on me pleading for my attention and a few rubs under his neck. He then will accompany me through the whole walk, walking briskly in fornt of me, as if checking if every thing is ok!

This happened a few times and since he stays in my own house out side, i decided to try and feed him some thing when every i saw him. So i tried giving him chapathi, nope he din eat it. Bread, yes he ate that once, next time onwards he did'nt . Biscuit nope, burger nope, pizza crust, nope. Fine you would think he would at least drink water right!? but nooo...

The dog just did'nt want anything. All he wanted was for me to pet him and give him 5 mins of my day. these days he sits outside my front door all evening (which my mom hates of course) hoping i will come out.
When i do, i just cant go with out petting him. So gentle and so affectionate he is. Even for a few seconds i stop petting him, he'll immediately start nudging my fingers. When i open my car door once i get back home, he almost jumps into my car in full excitement.

Some times all people need is love. Once you give them love then they start expecting it and more, and it goes on and on. It is very difficult to satisfy any human being who craves for anything emotional, because not matter how much you do or what you do, it will never be enough. But with animals, you can do the same thing or give the same thing for 10 years and they'll still be happy and want nothing more. In return they will only give you their life!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Talk about fashion


Talk about fashion
Originally uploaded by shreya zazu
One of my favorite pictures ...this when Lakshmi was posing for me ;-) o and she's wearing beautiful silver golisu's (anklets) ..Lakshmi is the elephant at the Manakula Vinayakar temple at Pondicherry.

Monday, February 9, 2009

UNDERSTANDING DEVI




We see Devi in all kinds of ways today, we see her in a wooden shrine, in a brass image. See her as hilltop in gwahati , see her in Kolkatta’s kalighat in her fierce form, in Tibet as the bizarre figure riding a wild ass, in Nepal as a beautiful living child dressed in red…all of them address Devi as maa…the mother who protects them from everything!

There would be more than a thousand names for Devi because each of her temples go by a different names and many times her name is what that village or that city gets called by like Roma for Rome, Athena for Athens, Mumbai for Mumba Devi, Calcutta for Kali ka katta(seat of kali).
When it comes to worshiping her, it happens from just painting a rock to doing elaborate orthodox rituals. In Nepal they belive that the goddess resides in the kumari’s(virgins), and the royal kumari’s bless the king every year. The very form Devi is given is to receive darshan….as the act of seeing is a transfer of grace. The Vishnu samhita talkes about imagery and how important it is to have an image to help your mind concentrate on it.

Lawrence babb’s study is very interesting as he studies the fact that he says that the Devi is soo beautiful the demons don’t want to fight her but she on the other hand tells them that she will marry only the one that fights her in battle. She is the virgin, destructive and she is always victorious. He says that acts of destructions is ok as long as they bring order afterwards.

One must also understand that mother goddess are there for nurturing their devotes rather than child bearing. Non of the goddess such as Lakshmi or Saraswathy ever bore children. Parvathi had Skanda and Ganesh but never bore them in her womb.

DEVI DOWN THE AGES

A large number or crudely fashioned female clay figures were found from the Indus civilization which was at its peak from 2600-1900 B.C. The dominance of such terra-cotta figures among the material remains from these cultures and the absence of male deities suggests the importance of the feminine goddess during that time. Although when the Aryans dominated north India, they introduced the Vedas which is a very male dominated scripture and that is how society changed to becomes overwhelmingly masculine. Post Veda literature such as the Upanishads still continues to support and propagate the made oriented tradition, although the worship of mother goddess was still present it lay low.
It is only the start of the current era that witnessed the rise of the worship of the mother goddesses. They were seen as dayini (wish granters).terra-cotta plaques of different kinds began to be made. Lakshmi the goddess of wealth was first goddess to be portrayed she is also called as Shri. She is describes as being as radiant as gold and she sits on a lotus adorned with jewellery and flowers.

During the Gupta dynasty, 320 A.D mother goddess were engraved on coins, on one coin Shri Lakshmi sits on a lion holding a cornucopia in one hand. It is during this dynasty that the worship of mother goddess strengthened a lot. In the next few centuries mother goddess began to be carved in stone mostly of the goddess killing Mahisha the bore. Dating to the 5th and 6th century we have well preserved images of the goddess, wither with a toddles or with a new born at hand, but it is the Devi Mahatmiyam that conceptualized the goddess worship. There was no turning back for the mother goddess after this!

In philosophy there are two theories that explain the worship of mother goddess. The first is maya and the second is the Brahman. The whole world is brought about by maya a creative potency with in the Brahman. Shankara used the term shakthi to describe shiva’s consort in the Saundaryalahiri, in which she is superior to Shiva. In the Devi Mahatmiyam Shakthi, Maya and Prakriti all come together, she is seen to pervade and sustain creation.
The 12th century text the Devi- Bhagavata Purana which took the tree famous stories of devi and announced that Devi as Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasarasvathi.

One of the earliest temples surviving Devi temples is the Ambika-Mata temple at Jagat, Rajasthan that dates back to 960 A.D. there are varied images of the goddess with Mahisha in different posed all around the temple, though the main image is missing.
In the south, the Vijayanagara empire worshiped goddess Durga before embarking on the war-related activities, just like it was done in the Mahabharat when Krishna asked Arjuna to pray to goddess Durga before he goes to fight and in the Ramayana when Rama prays for victory to goddess Durga before he goes to battle with Ravana.

Through out history even when the worship of mother goddesses did not gain primacy her many forms as a wish bestower, especially as
Lakshmi the goddess of wealth and Saraswathi the goddess of learning are always worshiped. Also the worship of Draupadi and Radha are worshiped in selected parts of India. Temples for Draupadi are found only in south India where as Radha worship is found only in the north. There are a number of village deities around India, in tribal areas there isn’t always a fixed iconography, like for example Vaseli who is worshiped in the coastal Orissa is simply represented by a rock coated with paint. While other deities like Kamakshi and Meenakshi are worshiped in a more orthodox way.

We also have temples like at Guwahati, where they worship Devi Kamakhya where she is celebrated in a sheet of rock with a cleft filled with water. Here worship is very different, she is offered animal sacrifice like for example anything ranging from a goat to a buffalo. The animal is brought to the temple is beheaded and the head alone is taken to the alter as an offering, the meat is then distributed among the devotees. A few times a year the water turns red indicating that the menstruation of the goddess very similar to the Chengannur Bhagavathi temple in Kerala., here again a few times a year, the goddess’s white petticoat gets stained after which the temple is closed for 3 days. The petticoat on the other hand is bought by the wealthy. Menstruation here is hailed as auspicious and a reiteration of the fertility and sexuality of the goddess.
New forms of Devi keep coming up some generalized like mother India and some localized like Vaishno Devi in the Himalayas or Vindhyavasini from the Vindhyachal.also deities like Santoshi Maa, unknown 25years ago! Santoshi ma became popular due to the popular medium such as cinema.

DEVI AND TODAYS’S WOMAN

Although the great goddess have been studies and worshiped in great depth it some how does not affect the status of women in today’s society. Today’s generation might reinterpret Devi as she is and try to provide them with a degree of freedom and power. It would indeed be gratifying to see women in India draw from the tradition of the mother goddess to redefine their status in today’s world.

References:

At the Feet of the Goddess: The Divine Feminine in Local Hindu Religion, Lynn Foulston.

Encountering Devi, Vidya Dehejia.

Devī: Goddesses of India, John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff.

Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devī-māhātmya and a Study of Its Interpretation, Thomas B. Coburn.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Elina

My aunt nor i had met her before. but she opened the door and gave us the biggest smile and said...hhhiiiiiiiiiii auunttyyy!!( to my aunt of course!!). as we went in, she only gave us only 100% of her attention. she was soo cheerful and happy and running about here and there. I wouldn't have imagined that she had lost her father only about 6 months ago. her name ELINA...

elina(to me): can you please help me with this bouquet of flowers I'm trying to make for my mother?
me: yeah sure, why not!
elina: thank you soo much akka, so what do you do? are you in collage?
me: yeah I study in Dakshinachitra(I started helping her draw on her sheet)
elina: O really, i have been there. Akka you know some thing you draw soo well( with a big smile)
me: really , you think so??(proudly continue to draw badly) anyway what are your hobbies elina? do go for singing classes?
elina: yeah but i like dance better, you know all i want to do is go around the world and give performances ...just like my dad.
me: yeah im sure you will..you like dancing better than singing!??
elina: I don't think i could sing as well as my dad ...
me: you have to try!! you cant say that after learning for just a year!!...anyway dancing is good too..i learn dance too!!
elina: really akka!!thats wonderful!!
me: so why are you making this bouquet?? school project?
elina: nooo...in fact i have my exams going on, i have English tomorrow...this is for my mother!...
me: O, for your mother!!
elina: yeah...these days she hardly even smiles...after my dad died she feels very.....alone...!
me: (shocked that such a young girl is able to talk about stuff like this, i continue to draw and nod my head)
elina: yeah she keeps crying , i feel very bad...when i tell her not to cry she doesn't listen to me..so after i come home every day i make some thing for her so she doesn't feel bad.
me: that's really very nice ....(still a little shocked)
elina: yeah yesterday i made her a drawing of a cake, then few days ago i made bird with color paper, today i thought ill give her flowers, see i have these are extra straws ....can you help me cut it??
me: sure!! give it to me...
eline: thank you so much akka...i don't know how i would have done it if you weren't there...
me: so what do you do when you come back from school?
elina: i come back at 2 o clock...and eat some thing that my mother has prepared then i sit think about what i can make for her that day or what to do when she comes back so that i can make her happy!...do that till she comes n show it to her...then do my home work ...n that's all i go to sleep...
me: o don't you have friends in your flat with whom you can play with?
elina: no...theres no body...
me: O so your all alone at home until your mother is back?
elina: yeahhh...(with this very casual expression)...O i also practice my dance and singing...because i want to become really good when i grow up. i want to be just like my father when i grow up. i want to go to america, and london and all...have you been there??
me: america..yes!!...
elina: realllyyyyyyyyyyyy !!!!your soo lucky akka...(i just give her a smile)
me: here this is almost done!...what color shall i put on top?
elina: red..that's my mothers favorite colour.!!shes going to be soo happy...(she gets all excited )
you know Christmas is coming and she wants to go away to this camp because she doesn't what stay here alone..
me: un huh...do you want to go too??
elina:i will go where ever my mother goes...i never leave her..

then she said some thing..that moved me a lot!!

elina: you knowww....since my father died ..shes been so unhappy..i jussssttt don't know what to do ( in this mallu accent)....all i want to do is make her happy!..with these flowers shell be happy for just a little time..then she becomes sad again!!...( she puts her hand on her chin and is deep thought, as if trying to solve a math problem)..what do you think i should do..??
me: well, maybe she'll be okay in some time...
elina: but akka its already been sooo long!!...
me: ok well then keep trying!!..am sure things will change...
elina: (not convinced) okay okay ill think of some thing...o the flowers are done!!...o akka ...they look so pretty!!...come come...lets go give them to my mother!!

she runs to the living room with the flowers hidden behind her back, and asks her mother to close her eyes. her mother does as shes told, then she sits in front of her with her biggest smile with the flowers in front and says ..."okaay opeeennn"...

her mother looks at them and smiles...mean while elina is all over her tell her and showing her what i drew and what i cut and all..her mother smiles and says yeahh its really pretty...looks at my and gives me a smile.Elina mean while has the biggest smile and this sparkle in her eyes when she sees her mother smiling.

i still dont understand how an 8 year old can be so mature, be so strong. mind you that 30 mins i spent with her, not once did she sound sad or depressed. she was so in control of herself, her goals set, her aims clear and she was prepared to do anything to make her mother happy. THAT is a quality many people lack, some times even me.